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that will help all of us to achieve rich, satisfying, and healthy lives as well as longer ones.

SHORTCOMINGS IN AGING RESEARCH

The subcommittee is heartened by the slowly but continually rising expenditures on behalf of older people by Federal, State, and local governments and by scores of voluntary agencies. In aggregate, the annual amounts run into billions of dollars. The subcommittee is concerned, however, as to the kind and quality of information on which expenditures and programs are based. It is fearful that, in far too many cases, they are based on fictions rather than demonstrated facts, on preconceptions rather than well-established principles, on tenaciously held prejudices rather than demonstrated knowledge. The fault, in the eyes of the subcommittee, lies not so much with those who develop and administer programs as it does with the lack of knowledge itself.

Common sense as well as established practice in business and government will not allow this situation to endure The programs for which these growing expenditures are made must be devised and administered only on the basis of such knowledge as would flow from soundly conceived and well-conducted research into the nature of the problems which the expenditures are meant to resolve or alleviate.

The principle is obvious. Yet, when the subcommittee looked into the status of research on the problems of the aged and aging, it found such great shortcomings and problems as to make essential the recommendations set forth in the conclusion of this chapter. It found that such knowledge as there is in the field of aging is too narrowly disseminated and inadequately used. It found relatively few attempts to make use of knowledge from related fields that have direct bearing on the field of gerontology. It found that much socalled research in the field is second rate, carried on by poorly trained and under supervised personnel or by individuals not trained in research techniques at all.

It found that great problems exist insofar as the recruitment and training of personnel for work in gerontology are concerned. It uncovered problems relating to the financing of research in the field of aging that are directly responsible for many of these shortcomings and for the haphazard development that nas characterized the entire field of gerontology. And it found that the financing of the research we must have, if we are to act wisely in this field, is inadequate.

These findings are derived from a number of wholly reliable sources. They reflect the concern of administrators, researchers, and specialists in aging throughout the country. They are based partly on subcommittee staff meetings, much like post graduate seminars, held on October 4 and 5 of 1960, the first of which was attended by some of the leading scientists working on the medical-biological aspects of aging and the second of which included outstanding social-scientists engaged in gerontological studies. They are also based on the replies to a subcommittee questionnaire sent to a large number of acknowledged experts in this field. (See appendix for list.) And they include the essence of the convictions of the scores of scientists and specialists who participated in the more recent White House Conference on Aging. Participants in the October meetings are listed at the end of this chapter.

RESEARCH ON AGING TODAY

Research on aging-gerontological research, as it is called in academic circles has characteristics and problems that are not common to other research areas. As a result, gerontology today is handicapped in establishing itself as a field to which outstanding men and women can devote themselves with any certainty of a secure future; suffers from great imbalances of emphasis; is short of personnel; and is decidedly underfinanced. These points are explained below.

Tardy recognition of the field of aging

Over the years a vast amount of research has been done on the growth and development of children and on the nature and problems of childhood and adolescence. Similarly, there is a growing volume of research on the physical and mental health, family relationships, employment problems, environmental circumstances, and other facets of young adult life. It is only now being recognized, however, that almost everyone will live into the advanced years and that the processes of aging and the problems of older people are as complex and numerous as those of the earlier stages of life.

The subcommittee is distressed that so few of those in the basic scientific disciplines-biology, biochemistry, physiology, psychology, economics, sociology, and political science have foreseen the need to extend their studies and teaching to a consideration of the aging organism and the problems of older individuals. They have been slow to set up courses on aging within their fields. The subject matter of aging is generally nonexistent or is buried in courses on other topics.

The subcommittee is in agreement with the expert opinions that until there is impetus from the top, that is, from the most respected people engaged in scientific inquiries, the colleges and universities will continue to be backward in affording gerontology a recognized position within the curriculum.

The need for a multidisciplinary approach

Some of the most serious problems now affecting research in gerontology are inherent in the compelling and inescapable fact that this field cuts across many other areas and requires an interdisciplinary approach. The processes and problems of aging affect virtually every aspect of human life. No single facet of life can be fully understood without reference to others. This is particularly true among older people whose health and mental well-being, for example, are vitally related to their incomes, the activities in which they engage, the place society accords them, and to a variety of other factors. Thus, while there is great need for research on aging within particular scientific fields, there is even greater need for research carried on by teams of researchers from several related fields working in close harness on single, but many-sided, problems.

To the extent that gerontology becomes a recognized field, researchers will appreciate the sterility of approaches that undertake to compartmentalize the individual. They will not study his behavior and needs within unrealistically narrow areas, apart from the environments within which he lives and in ignorance of the multitude of problems with which he is confronted.

Lack of depth in current research

Because the field of aging is new and because financing is inadequate and inappropriately handled, far too much of today's research is notoriously superficial and short-ranged. Biological and physiological aging is rooted in the most fundamental organic and chemical structures and life processes; psychological aging is a complex product of biological, mental, and sociological changes; the behavior of older people is a product of habits developed over a lifetime and of an enormous variety of biological, cutural, and environmental factors and influences.

In recognition of these facts, it was the overwhelming conclusion of the October seminar participants that gerontological research must be pursued both in depth and over long periods of time. It was their conviction, forcefully underwritten by participants in the White House Conference on Aging, that it is only through long-term, longitudinal studies (studies of the same people over long periods of time) that we shall ever come to a real understanding of the nature of the aging process and of the social and economic implications of aging in modern society.

Specific problems arise in the study of animals because of the cost and difficulty of obtaining adequate supplies of old animals. The difficulties of studying the processes of aging in humans are far more complicated and costly because of the much longer time periods involved, the greater number of variables, and the obstacles in the way of obtaining representative populations of middle-aged and older people. One subcommittee respondent to the questionnaire characterized such research as "large-scale experiments that will be required in many instances to detect the small-scale effects involved in many of the phenomena characteristic of the aging process.' Another of the many recommendations on the need for long-range studies in gerontology stated the problem in these terms:

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It is an essential feature of research financing, especially in the aging field, that support be given for a sufficient period of time to enable the investigator to carry out a penetrating study. Often, this will require a period of several years, and it may be only after numerous disappointments fruitful results are forthcoming.2

The alternative to providing adequately for the long-range studies is likely to be that the researcher

may limit his research to problems from which he expects
to get very rapid results, and use methods which are not the
most desirable but will give him some kind of data to use in
a research report so that he can apply for another short term
grant.3

In recommending the long-range studies, the seminar participants discussed the length of time required for the studies that should be undertaken in terms of 5-, 7-, and 10-year periods. Studies that extend for 20 years or across an entire generation are also required. Such studies are all too rare today.

1 Alexander Grendon, Coordinator, Office of Atomic Energy Development and Radiation Protection, Governor's office, Sacramento, Calif. Dr. H. H. Draper, Associate Professor of Animal Nutrition, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois (Urbana). Dr. Robert B. Johnston, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska Lincoln).

Personnel problems

Today's research in aging is further handicapped by a lack of qualified personnel and by the existence of roadblocks in the way of their recruitment. In part, the explanation of this situation lies in the fact that gerontology is

** in competition with some very expensive studies in the physical sciencies, which have high prestige, and consequently have big donations made to them. As one thinks of the whole of human society he will probably and finally conclude that human welfare is the foundation on which all research should be based. The whole of human welfare should be better financed and on a broader foundation than at present.

Another subcommittee respondent stated that:

Researchers in aging do require special attention to keep them in a field which hitherto has not been particularly rich in experimental findings and in which difficulties are encountered as great if not greater, than those occurring in cancer research."

A corollary to the problem of attracting some of the highest ranking research people to gerontology is the fact that the quality of research in the aging field has not always met the highest standards.

Up to now there has been some excellent biological research and much mediocrity. The various papers on aging that I have read, with notable exceptions, are notoriously poor."

A prevailing opinion among the participants in the medicalbiological seminar was that gerontology research is in the same position cancer research was in prior to the establishment of the National Cancer Institute. That is, cancer research suffered from second-rate and haphazard efforts until the National Institute undertook the task of organizing and directing research in the field. It was only then that some of the best qualified researchers were drawn into the cancer studies.

Closely related also, of course, is the need for giving encouragement to students in the form of scholarships, fellowships, and stipends; for training present faculty members in aging; and for giving recognition to the field through the establishment of courses and research facilities. As has been the case in other areas, the acute shortage of personnel is most likely to be corrected if and when the Federal Government exercises vigorous leadership to demonstrate its concern with the importance of good teaching and research in this area. Later we shall discuss the types of personnel needed and the steps which must be taken if they are to be recruited for tomorrow's research programs. Federally supported research

Federal agencies have been responding, albeit slowly, to the pressures for scientific information about the processes of aging and about older people and their circumstances. Several departments and agen

Dr. Chester Alexander, Westminster College (Fulton, Mo.).

C. J. Leblond, Department of Anatomy, McGill University (Montreal, Canada).
Dr. William Montaga, Department of Biology, Brown University (Providence, R.I.),

cies, notably the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Labor, and the Veterans' Administration are themselves conducting increasing amounts of research on aging and two are making grants to universities, professional schools, and other outside research centers.

The National Institutes of Health within the Public Health Service (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) is the principal Federal agency involved with research on aging. The Institutes maintain a center for research on aging which undertakes to stimulate interest in research in this field, provides a focal point for information on aging within the Institutes, and is currently making some grants. Located within the Division of General Medical Sciences, it necessarily has a medical orientation. In appraising the work of the NIH on behalf of the aged, Dr. G. Halsey Hunt, Chief of the NIH Division of General Medical Sciences, notes that

The NIH programs are quite broad, extending from the molecular level at one extreme to the social level at the other, including, of course, a great number of studies into the chronic diseases which so often characterize old age. All biological and medical disciplines are represented."

While no funds are earmarked for research on aging, the Institutes are currently supporting approximately 600 grants to outside agencies for research and training which are either primarily or secondarily related to aging and problems of aging. Notable is the support of four research centers all of which are presumably concerned with the broad aspects of aging. These are at

Duke University Medical School (Durham, N.C.), 1957.

Yeshiva University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (New York, N.Y.), 1958.

Western Reserve University Medical School (Cleveland, Ohio), 1960.

University of Miami Medical School (Miami, Fla.), 1960. It is noted that all of these centers are located within medical schools. Delegates to the recent White House Conference on Aging strongly recommended that similar centers be established regionally with a strong focus on research in the psychological and social sciences.

Within the National Institutes of Health, there are two research units devoted to studies of aging in the individual. The Gerontology Branch of the National Heart Institute, established in 1941, has achieved eminent status as a pioneer and sustained contributor to a continuing program of research on

biology and cellular physiology, human physiology, human
work performance, human psychological performance, and
geriatrics. The Section on Aging within the National In-
stitutes of Mental Health is studying the behavioral changes
which accompany aging through observation of the aging
process in animals and humans in order to reveal and under-
stand our physical and mental aging process.

8

While the approaches in both of these centers involve the correlation of biological, physiological, and psychological aspects of aging-thus

7 "Research Highlights in Aging," Public Health Service Publication No. 779, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1959, p. iii.

8"Programs for Older People: Activities, Resources, Dollar Dimensions," report of the Federal Council on Aging to the President, 1960. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Oflice, 1960, p. 26.

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